Review: Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Having read Mara, Daugher of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw about 5 or 6 times, I think I'm qualified to give this book a review.

Plot: Mara, a blue-eyed slave girl in ancient Egypt, is sold by her brutal master to a mysterious stranger. This new master, who is a hig-ranking officer for the Queen of Egypt, unexpectedly offers her freedom and riches, but demands she complete a task that may cost her life. Mara is determined to grasp this chance, and agrees to the bargain. While completing her duties, she meets suave Sheftu on a river barge. Sheftu is determined to get the queen's brother, the rightful heir to the throne, back in power, and employs Mara as a spy for his cause. With Mara's now-conflicting responsibilities, her loyalties are divided. As a spy for two sides working against each other, should Mara follow her master and take the freedom and gold he offers, or free Egypt of its burdens and follow her heart into the arms of Sheftu?

Wow. What a plot, huh? That's only the beginning of the goodness. This book has captured my attention multiple times, and I honestly can't wait until the next time I get to read it. Every time I pick it up, my procrastination with other tasks increases. (That's the sign of a good book, right?) The dialogue-description ratio is about even, so the reader doesn't get bored or confused with excessive amounts of either. I recommend this book for young readers in junior high all the way up to those just wanting to be entertained by wholesome and enthralling media.

Let me know what you think of the book!

Next review: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

It's a good think I'm not a criminal

So far this week, I've been fingerprinted, background checked (twice), and tested for drugs and Tuberculosis. A lot is required to be able to work in people's homes and with elementary children. I've been running around trying to prove I'm clean (one look at me usually tells people I'm more naive and innocent than a flower, but I have to be tested nonetheless).

Oh, and drug tests are expensive...why does it cost so much to give away 2 oz. of my liquid waste? I think if they want to test me for drugs, they should have to pay me to get my urine. It's mine, anyway, right? Grrr.

2 for 2

Well, I landed my second job today!

This one is a caregiving position where I'll go to client's homes and help with personal tasks such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, playing games, running errands, shopping, etc. Concentric Home Health helps a lot of elderly people as well as those who have disabilities, including children. I am super excited about this job because I'll be doing what I love most: interacting with and helping the elderly on a personal level.

Ok, ok, I'll post something.

Well, I guess it's time to start blogging again now that I'm somewhat settled and able to spend time on the computer. Here are some updates:

1. We are now graduated! Will's family came into town and we had a blast spending time with all of our friends and family. I'm proud to announce that I graduated with 120.5 credits and Will graduated with ... a few more than that. Talk about reaching the bare minimum!

2. I got a cold on finals day and I'm still trying to get rid of it. Sore throat, cough, aches, runny/stuffy nose, earaches, headaches, sneezing, etc. You name it, I've experienced it in the past 9 days.

3. I have one job and I'm working on a second. I had an interview 2 days ago with Elements Music. This is a company that sends teachers to elementary schools where they teach group piano lessons for an hour after the children get out of school. I was hired as one of the teachers, and I'll be starting next week. This is just a part-time job that only requires about an hour and a half each day, so I'll be able to work in the mornings at a full-time job. Yay for income!

4. All of our stuff is safe inside a storage unit and we're feeling cozy in our new room.

5. I get to read for leisure now and I've added a list of books I'm reading to the side of the blog. If any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I already have a little list going, but one can never read enough books, right?

I think that's about it for now. Sorry for the huge lapse. I'll be better now that life is getting back to normal.

Answering the questions

Just wanted to answer some of the questions that were posed about the house.

• It has 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom


• 1420 sq ft


• It's on Ray and Recker


• Community name: The Willows (fitting)
  

It's a perfect little starter home and we can't wait till it's finished!

Could it be...

Well, the time has come in Bri and I's life that we find a house....
Mission Accomplished. Bri and I have been to Arizona a few times house hunting and we found a place that we can afford and thats in a good area. The only problem was that we had to build it... Yes we are building a home in Gilbert , Arizona. For your viewing pleasure I have attached the pictures on the foundation and the framing. The house is scheduled to be completed in October. The last picture is where the house is at right now.

Our Land!!!

This is the slab of concrete that comprises the foundation of our home. As you can see they pour it as one full slab which is really neat because the house will settle as one unit instead of multiple units which would cause cracks in the drywall and uneven settling.









The framing seems to be going well. The first picture is the stairs, the second is from the garage looking into the family room and the third is from the Master Bedroom into the Master Bathroom.


These pictures are from the outside of the house...
1)Picture of the back of the house looking West.
2)Picture of the front of the house looking East.
3)Picture of the side of the house looking South.



As you can see that the house is ready for the tile roof which is so conveniently placed in front of our house. Bri and I are extremely excited about our house. We will continue to post pictures of the progress of our home. Let me know if you have any questions.

Wickedness never was Happiness....well, almost.

There are some things that are "wicked" but provide immense happiness: the play and the ride.

Wicked, the broadway play, is absolutely amazing. I assume any theatre you go to will provide an outstanding performance since I was overly impressed at both the Gershwin and Pantages Theatres.
(click here to see the tour trailor for Wicked)

However, this post is not meant to discuss the play (although I could go on for some time), but rather to show the coolest ride at Lagoon:


Yes, we rode this ride multiple times and only loved it more each time. I highly suggest going on it even if you're not a roller coaster fan or if you hate the feeling or the speed or are afraid of heights or blah blah blah. It's awesome!!!

(more to come later about our full adventures at Lagoon)

Question for you all...

I was reading the story in Alma 32 about Alma and the Zoramites. Alma goes and sees that the rich people are worshipping just for show and are prideful in their vain repetitions and costly apparel. He sees them praying only once a week for just a few minutes, standing on the infamous rameumptom and saying blasphemous prayers.

Well, then Alma preaches to the people and those who are poor listen to him. They have been cast out of their synagogues and are despised because of their poverty. I've read this story multiple times, but this time, I was surprised by Alma's bluntness. He tells them straight out that even though they have been kicked out because of the "courseness of their apparel" and their "poverty as to the things of the world," they can still worship and pray in their homes and private places more than just once a week. He goes on to say that it is good that they have been cast out because they have been compelled to be humble; however, immediately after this, he says that "because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word? Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed—yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty." (Alma 32:14-15) This caught me off guard because it seemed like Alma gave them a compliment, then took it back. As I thought about this, I realized that he wasn't retracting a compliment, but rather could say this to the humble people because (1) they were willing to repent, (2) they had been prepared to hear these words, and (3) he was the prophet and could tell them whatever he wanted.

Alma goes on to discuss knowledge vs. belief and what most people know this chapter to be about: Faith. My question for you is "What can we do each day to become humble of our own accord instead of being compelled to be humble?" Any thoughts or suggestions?

The Syko Synopsis...

Well, I started my own personal blog called The Syko Synopsis. It will function much like Bri's blog Downright Delightful. Hope you enjoy it... I know I will!

The perusal of my eyes...

A look of confidence, a smile of comfort, a wink to say I care for you, a hug that sends goosebumps throughout your body, sacrifice that can only mean the root of her love for our relationship...

My beautiful wife is the most amazing person that I know. She surprises me everyday with her strength and her confidence. She works hard to be the person that God wants her to be. She keeps the commandments of God so she can feel the warmth that it brings to our lives. She has worked extremely hard in college to be able to graduate in two years so that our family will be educated and prepared for what the future holds. She is willing to leave all her wants and desires at the door to better our relationship and to take the preparatory steps to live with Heavenly Father again. She is a light in my life that I can turn too for a great example in every facet of life.

I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity that I have to spend my earthly life with her and to have made the proper covenants to continue to live with her in the next life. I thank him for her sincerity, her determination, her empathy, her love...This picture really shows what I am trying to say and the way that she exuberantly demonstrates these qualities. And the way that I look at her and how amazed I am by this phenomenal women... What an amazing view.

Oh gross!

My toe is disgusting right now. If any of you don't like the sight of nastiness, look away now.

My big toe got infected with something nasty (probably a plague or something) and it is horrid. It's been oozing for a few days now and the flesh isn't attached to the nail at all. See the upper-left corner where it's all yellow under the nail? Ya, disgusting.

(Ignore the fact that I need a pedicure, please :)

"Humans are disgusting." - Sid the Sloth

Here is my sad face because it itches and sometimes hurts.


Here is my disgusted face because it's ridiculously gross and abominable in my eyes.

The Need for Speed...

So for the last 7 months I have been driving a truck that I have had since Junior year in High School which has been lagging extremely bad. Throughout the 7 months I have replaced all the spark plugs, all the wires to the spark plugs, the distributer cap, and the fuel filter. Well, all these replacements did not help the performance of my once very torque filled truck. So I finally spent some real money and had a full diagnostic check down on my truck. The mechanic said that truck is great except that the Fuel Pump was only giving half the pressure that it was supposed too. I figured that this was the issue but I had hoped that it wasn't due to the cost of the fuel pump compared to a distributer cap. The mechanic said they could do it for 375 bucks and I choked. So I went to Autozone and spent 50 bucks for the part and thought this would be a great opportunity to learn how to change a fuel pump. My father-in-law and I spent 3 hours on Saturday and changed the pump. It was quite a process...

1) Remove the fuel tank for the truck.
(Harder than it sounds)
2) Remove all fuel lines and electricity from the fuel tank.
3) Remove Fuel Pump.
4) Replace old fuel pump with new fuel pump.
5) Clean fuel tank.
6) Replace the fuel tank and reconnect fuel lines and electricity.

When looking at the old fuel pump you could tell that it was the issue the whole time. The fuel pumps filter had decomposed and had filled the fuel pump with the material that the filter was made out of. Well, after we filled the tank with some gas it was time to start the truck again. When I turned the ignition it sounded like a new truck that was tired of choking and ready to go out and run. I hit the accelerator and the truck took off as of old (even leaving some rubber down in the garage). I love my truck!!!!

Music Civilization 201

Before college, I had planned on majoring in piano performance and excelling every minute of it. Then I graduated high school and realized that a degree in piano performance probably wouldn't be able to support me, let alone a family, if I ever needed to rely on my degree.

So I scrolled through the list of possible majors at BYU searching for something that could offer me a little more security in the real world. Julliard can wait...I'll become a concert pianist later.

Well in my first semester at the Y, I had Music 101. I loved the information and the subject. It was right up my alley; I loved being able to match piece with composer and time period, just by listening. It was so much fun. Now I am in my last semester, and I am taking my second and final music class of my college career.

I'm loving it. It's wonderful. The book was only $72, which is a major bonus because we were expecting much, much more. In this class, I have made comments every day except the first. I can't help but join in the discussion. I love the material, it's so interesting and applicable to what I already know.

I have been able to apply what I've learned in previous classes (mythology, religion in the home, music 101) to things we're studying in this class. Experiences from junior high and high school have helped me in this class. Knowledge from years of piano lessons and sacrament meetings allow me to relate with the professor. It's a magnificent class.

My professor is ... how do I describe him? ... fantastic? Superb? Outstanding? One-of-a-kind. He walks in everyday and just observes the myriad of freshman (with a few upper-class students just trying to finish general reqs, such as myself). He smiles as he hears silly comments made about exciting things like the dorms or french kissing. Then class begins and he teaches why things like Roman mass are important to Latter-day Saints. He tells stories of his past not to put himself above us, but to illustrate points and give examples.

He cross-stitches for fun and gardens to relax. He doesn't own a television. He can't stand brutality and violence. He is humble despite his amazing accomplishments and experiences. Some might consider him old-fashioned, but I don't think that at all. He is more of a modernized antique, at least knowledge-wise. He's not extremely old, but he has enough knowledge to be ancient. What a class! I love it.

Cheap thrills

Focus....

Yesterday, we had a contest that turned out to be hilariously fun: ball balancing. We took turns seeing how long we could stay on the big ball. I held the record for 13 seconds. Then Mattea (my youngest sister) wasted me with 24 seconds. That was that for a few hours, but then Will was determined to beat his own personal record of 7 seconds. We kept trying and trying and he made it to 52, then I got to 86. Will holds the current record of 91 seconds. Wow!

Try it ... it's harder than it looks :)

my homework

lately, this is what my homework consists of: writing cool phrases in beautiful fonts.

this is the celtic alphabet and is 2 of 4 that i'm learning. so far it's my favorite.

I am Pippi Longstocking

Does anyone remember Pippi Longstocking? She was so wild and crazy and played by her own rules, but the thing I remember her most for was her hair. Red braids that stuck straight out like this:

In one of my classes this term, there's a girl who, for some reason, reminds me of Pippi. Haha.

(This was taken on the spur-of-the-moment via cell phone. Sorry for the poor quality.)

Jason has a chance!

Well, friends, our favorite bachelor has a better chance now that Jeremy is gone. Did anyone see that coming?! Will & I were sure Jesse would be gone. Now there are new dynamics. Guesses as to who she will choose??

VS.

P.S. Check out some cute new pics of Holly here!

One thing about AZ is the sunsets

I've always loved Utah's sunsets, but Arizona's are infinitely better. The angle of this one was bad because it was from the car, so I got an ok picture from hanging out the window.

Then I thought I would just take a picture of my mirror...it turned out pretty cool, too.

SHEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

I just couldn't resist taking this when we were stopped in Kanab.
Haha..I love that movie!

75 mph

While I was trying to get cool pictures as I was hanging out the window, my hair took a turn for the worse:

And this is what happens when you're bored and the camera is on...poor Will had to endure me taking about 57 pictures and giggling after each one. Haha.

"Your account has been terminated"

Will and I met at work. (I know: "aww, how cute!") We do technical support for the church. He works on the project management team and I work with account administration. On my team there are 5 full-time employees (supervisors) and 6 students. We are going through a lot of changes right now, and most of the time lately we're just confused because there's a different answer for almost every problem. We're also moving every church employee (yes, that even includes GAs, temple presidents/engineers/recorders, family history centers, and all remote users located in Asia/Pacific, Europe/Africa, and South America) from one email system to Outlook. Pretty much it's insane.

Anway, I got to work today and found that 4 of the supervisors on my team had stayed up all night working. "On what?" you ask? Well, last night, all the accounts for our center were deleted.

[deleted: wiped out, destroyed, terminated, erased for eternity,

never to be seen in a normally-functioning state again]

We don't know how, either. So every agent that works in our building had no accounts and no access attached to those accounts. This included approximately 300 accounts that had to be recreated and given rights. Luckily, there were 2 accounts that weren't erased and they both happened to belong to my team. So my team all logged in with her account and started working.

To get my account back to almost normal, it took 2 hours. Ugh.

Needless to say, it was a long day at work for all of us. We got almost everyone back up and running again, but it was a rough start to say the very least.

Bachelorette anyone?

Ok, the Bachelorette is down to the last 3 men. I don't know how many of you are fans, but I want to know who you think will win? ("Win" meaning continue the relationship, not like Deanna is a prize or anything :) )

Who's your favorite? Are you happy about Deanna's decisions thus far?

I say she will choose Jeremy. I will be happy with her choosing any of the remaining men, but she and Jeremy have the most in common. With both of them having lost parents, they have a pretty strong connection. Also, he treats her like a princess and she absolutely loves that. However, his brothers grilled her pretty good. I was scared for her, but I think she pulled through just fine.

I think she has a great friendship with Jesse, but I just can't see them together. Anyone else agree?

And as for Jason, he deserves only the best for himself and Ty, but I don't know if Deanna is ready to be a mom right away. She may have said that she wants to have 3 kids before she's 30 (only 4 years to do that, Deanna!), but I don't know if she'll really follow through with that goal. I personally hope that Deanna picks Jason because they make a cute family, but I doubt she will.

366 days ago...

...I married my best friend.

Yesterday was our anniversary! We celebrated it by doing what married people do: take care of each other. Because of Will's sickness, we couldn't go out to dinner, let alone do anything elaborate. So we "wined & dined" over eggs & toast for dinner & spent the evening just being together. It was marvelous. I got to be with my eternal companion all evening long!

We exchanged small gifts. Nascar books for him, pearls for me. One book is about Dale Earnhardt & the other is about Dale Jr. The pearls are copper-colored & beautiful! {i love them}

Here are some pics from that great day:

Drought

Sorry about the blog drought lately. Will & I went to Arizona for the weekend; it was so much fun!

We had a good time just relaxing & spending time together. It was fun to see family & bask in the sun (ok, we didn't bask. we rushed to stay indoors so we wouldn't become crispy).

The only downer was that Will got sick on the way down. Today we found out he has "mild pneumonia" so we're hoping that things will go up from here. Get better, babe!

Funny Cartoon

I ran across this the other day & thought I'd share it with you:

(If only child birth were this easy, right?)

reply: "Stumped"

Thanks for all your great ideas for how to remedy my blog block. I now have some fun things to post, so keep checking back!

Oh, & if any of you have requests for certain posts, let me know. I have a few already, so those will be coming shortly.

:)

I love onions more than tomatoes

I love onions more than tomatoes, but I miss tomatoes a lot now that they're practically extinct. I ate at a mexican restaurant the other night and ordered nachos. I went to the condiments table to dish up a few heaps of fresh pico de gallo and found NONE. The only thing in its place was the infamous (and annoying) sign making the excuse about why they didn't have tomatoes.

It went something like this:
"We're sorry...blah blah blah...not carrying tomatoes...blah blah blah...so basically we don't want to get sued...more blah blah blah."

I miss pico de gallo. Nachos, along with sandwiches and burgers, are pretty boring without tomatoes on them. Luckily, I still have onions...at least until they contract leprosy or something like unto it.

to our dads...

Happy Father's Day to the greatest men in our lives, our Dads. We trust them for support & friendship; we rely on them for wisdom & talent; we need them for examples.

To the grandpas in our lives, for their patience & concern. We know they love us :)

Here's a picture of "the kiss" just for fun :)

Question for you all... (all 3 of you faithful commenters)

I've been taught what it feels like to have truly repented, but I don't remember being taught what it feels like to have truly forgiven. I need to be better at actively forgiving people; I don't really think about pursuing forgiving others all that often. I usually just let things slide and I'm over them.

But I was in my Doctrine & Covenants class today, and my professor said that "harboring unforgiveness is a cancer that harms people physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. It can cloud our judgment and stop our progression." He also said that we can completely forgive people, yet still completely dislike them.

My question to you is, "How do you differentiate between unforgiveness and dislike?" Is is that you don't feel any hatred (in the most mild form of the word) towards them? Or that you just don't think bad about them anymore? Where does that line fall between forgiving someone yet still not liking them?

Happiness all around!

Want to see some delightful things? Check out my new blog, Downright Delightful! I plan on posting happy things on a regular basis, so be sure to visit often!!